'Back In Black'

A gigantic, popular album and for good reason. There are good songs here and they're very accessible to the Everyman. I don't think it's bad, but it certainly doesn't get my blood flowing like it did 12 years ago.

What I want to know is where this Brian Johnson guy came from.

AC/DC's original lead singer, Bon Scott, died of alcohol poisoning in February 1980 at the tender age of 33.

The band recorded Back in Black, after discussing disbanding after their lead singer bit it, in April and May of 1980 and they released the album in July 1980.

The band had already, as you might expect, starting writing material for the album with Scott before he died and finished writing it with Johnson, who penned the lyrics over Angus and Malcom Young's music. Mind you, Back in Black has the band's most popular songs including "You Shook Me All Night Long," "Given The Dog A Bone," "Shoot To Thrill" and "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution." Johnson just didn't continue the band. He essentially put the band on the everlasting map of rock music. He helped make them one of the most popular rock bands of all time.

Johnson had been in a band called Geordie (which sounds completely retarded) and released two albums through the 1970s. He was brought in by AC/DC after apparently their manager recommended him and even Bon Scott himself had mentioned Johnson to his bandmates at a time as being someone that sounded like Little Richard.

He auditioned and got the gig. He wasn't anyone special. Worked just as hard as probably a million other musicians. But not everyone get's Bon Scott's attention. Fewer have Bon Scott die of alcohol poisoning opening up their spot on a world-renowned rock band.

Fun facts: Johnson's brother Maurice works as a cook for the band. Also, AC/DC's last five albums have sold one million, 2.5 million, two million, five million and five million records. Not only can you not name either of the five albums (on purpose) but you can't name a song of any of them.

'Muddy Waters Live At Newport 1960'

Often, when you go through the 1,001 lists for books, records and films, you discover art that is truly influential, that really made an impact on others and spurred a plethora of other art, some of which could very well be considered better. But it never exists without that first step.

This album might fit that mold. By the time Muddy Waters, the famous bluesman, performed at the Newport Jazz Festival and released it several months later, he was already well known around the world.

By 1960, he'd made a name for himself as rock and roll began to really break. Thing is, unlike Buddy Holly or Elvis Presley, Muddy Waters had already made his mark.

Born in 1915 (or 1913, depending on the story), by 17 he'd already picked up the guitar and was performing around the country and making Chicago the hub for American blues in the north. He'd already recorded and by 1950s he was already recording on his own and making pretty good bank.

All before Elvis, Buddy and the Beatles. Meanwhile, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Rod Stewart and every other bluesy rocker in England were cutting their teeth on Waters' bark and his steely guitar. Live at Newport was evidence of the changing tide in rock music as it showed a proven bluesman going electric. Never had those infamous guitar heroes heard the instrument like the day they put the needle on this record. Now that's an album to hear before you die.

'The Man Who Fell To Earth'

I was talking about this film with a friend and the conversation turned to that of filmmaking in the 1970s. Primarily, how directors could do whatever they want and the films, generally, are better.

Certainly standards were lax back then, but I think there was also a very influential cadre of directors willing to make the film they wanted to make and as long as they stood firm they would continue to make the films they wanted.

I also think the filmmakers weren't as focused about making money as studios are today and films done by renowned directors tend to make money nonetheless.

Also, I'd be naive to think that everything done in the 1970s was fantastic and everything done now is pathetic. Truth is, I wasn't even born in the 1970s and I've failed to largely see any of the bad films because I'm sure there were plenty.

The amount of sex and nudity in The Man Who Fell To Earth is ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome. It's also something today's filmmaker wouldn't be able to do without giving it an R rating and not making any money because 14 year olds can't get into the theater.

This film completed a pretty nice run for director Nicolas Roeg, who did Walkabout, Don't Look Now and this film in succession.

'The Rise & Fall'

The greatest non-ska ska album. Probably ever.

The Rise and Fall was not released in the United States (for reasons unknown to this reporter) despite "Our House" being a pretty popular single (No. 7 in the United States after it was released on the compilation album, Madness.

This album is called "experimental." Only because a ska band didn't make a ska record and basically made a pop album. And that's "experimental." It's not experimental, it's just a band that wants to make a popular record so he can make more money. There's nothing wrong with that, but if I go to a restaurant where I always order a hamburger and order a hot dog, that doesn't make me "experimental." Just hungry.

'Roots'

This album was unbearable. Seventy-three minutes later and I finished the son of a bitch.

Metal sucks. Most of it sucks. Most sounds like 1970s hard rock. Deep Purple is nominally more heavy than most heavy metal and that includes Sepultura, apparently.

The infusion of "Brazilian" beats and whatnot was a complete failure. In fact, I think it's pretty pretentious to play metal and attempt to work in some Latin element so you can prove about how Brazilian you are.

I don't know. This is no longer a part of my life. I'm pretty sure I could have died without listening to this album.

'Bad Company'

I've never understood why a band with four hits and two years of relevance 30 years ago is still important. Every couple of years they get back together -- or someone gets together to play music -- or Paul Rodgers joins what remains of Queen to tour.

It's really pathetic. A bunch of old guys that think what they do is good and that people still want to listen to "Can't Get Enough" for the trillionth time. I guess they have to pay the bills just like all of us.

"Bad Company" has had six bass players, five guitarists, three lead vocalists and one drummer, Simon Kirke. So I think we've identified the hanger-on here.

Kirke hasn't saved enough money from Free and Bad Company so he doesn't have to get Bad Company back together for another North American summer tour playing outdoor amphitheatres with Journey or Foreigner opening up. Advertise in the local newspaper and 60-year-old goofs nudge each other in the ribs saying how cool it'd be to get out and see Bad Company. Instead, they fall asleep.

'...And Justice For All' & 'S&M'

Appropriate bookends: Metallica, one of the world's foremost heavy metal bands, at their rawest and most dirty and grimy and then Metallica, the polished superstar metal band performing with an orchestra.

Granted, they can do what they want. I don't think they need to prove anything to anybody. They probably could have made the same ol' thrash metal album for 25 years and by 1996, when S&M was released, we probably would have criticized them for trying to be the same band they were in 1986, growing their hair out despite the receding hairlines and wearing the same scowls, T-shirts and ripped blue jeans.

Still, an orchestra. The Metallica of ...And Justice For All would have beat up the Metallica of S&M and thems just the facts. I think they're pretty content with things the way they are.

What frustrated me on the release of S&M was the band coming out of the woodworks to talk about how they were always inspired by classical music and all that jazz. What. Ever. If they'd covered The Carpenters, they would have talked about how they were so inspired by 1970s AM soft rock.

Essentially, Metallica is a band that can do what George Lucas does with the Star Wars films: Repackage them every couple of years and force everyone to rebuy it. It's a boon for the classical community -- and brought a lot of attention to symphony orchestras -- and it's a multi-platinum album for Metallica re-recording 20-year-old songs.

Also appropriate that ... And Justice For All was Jason Newsted's first album and S&M was his last. I can't do this stuff on purpose.

'The Blithedale Romance'

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote some weird stuff.

The Blithedale Romance starts out as The Blithedale Bromance between Hollingsworth and Coverdale and then you begin to think that everyone's in love with Zenobia when in fact everyone's in love with Priscilla, Zenobia's half-sister. When left by Hollingsworth for Priscilla, Zenobia winds up drowning herself (see: Ophelia, the girl from Sansho the Bailiff).

I found Coverdale pretty obnoxious and egotistical in the first part of the story until you realize that everyone else is entirely more annoying and full of themselves. As it turns out, Coverdale is left on his own as he breaks up the relationship with Hollingsworth and the Zenobia is a flaky tramp.

Who I liked the most is the Fosters and Old Moodie. Also, I would have liked to read more about Blithedale and this commune action going on in the 1800s. People would just come to a farm to take advantage of the environment and hard work. Blithedale is based on Brooke Farm, a real life Transcendentalist commune in west Massachusetts that Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller and others all frequented.

Eventually, it became a socialist farm: You put in the work, everyone shares the spoils and you get to dick around the rest of the time and talk about ghosts. Because, apparently, all anyone talked about in the 1800s was ghosts.

'Brighton Rock'

A good book confuses the shit out of you for the first 50 pages only to go over what happened in detail those first 50 pages for it not to really matter.

I think. Maybe that's why I haven't published any of my novels. Gathering dust there on the shelves. I kid. I kid.

I think what confused me the most is Fred Hale leaving business cards around town for people to find and if they turn them into the newspaper, they can win 10 pounds. I guess this is a thing from the 1930s because it sounds like one of the most ridiculously awesome things ever. Imagining having a pretty bad day or even a so-so day and you're doing your usual thing and you turn around and find a card that gives you $50 (which I assume would be the equivalent for 10 pounds in the 1930s). That probably felt pretty good.

Brighton Rock's been turned into a play, a musical, a film (twice) and a radio program. Certainly, Pinkie is one of the best characters -- certainly in the sociopath genre -- in modern literature. Not unlike Alex in Clockwork Orange, a young man of his times and his environment. However, the pair are separated by Alex's need for sex and Pinkie's unanswered repulsion of human contact and sex. Not everything was carnal for Pinkie. It made the violence a bit more disturbing.

'The House In Paris'

I read this a kajillion years ago and I haven't written about it because I have absolutely nothing to say about it.

Certainly, I've researched several times attempting to knock it out once and for all and I can't find anything. I thought it was boring and trite. Too wrapped up in these family histories that are supposed to be important as these self-important people disappoint their loved ones over and over again.

Big deal.

There, I did it.

'The Unmarried Woman'

Women's liberation in its purest.

Woman is left by her husband. Fighting all of the despair, she bonds with her friends and gets laid. Soon, she finds her freedom refreshing.

I wish there were more to say here. I did find it completely obnoxious that Erica had the douchebag husband that left her for the secretary and so she decides to have this relationship with the douchebag artist.

I only kind of bring this up because I'm sure the director/screenwriter thought he was having Erica live the free, burdenless life by shacking up with an artist. However, wouldn't it have been more poetic if she hooked up with a construction worker or police officer. The artist, in the end, is only going to make her miserable in the end, and everyone knows it.

What this teaches us is that Erica isn't really free at all. She always needs a man and she always needs to be on the verge of destruction in her relationships. It's almost an anti-women's lib film although no one's willing to admit that the artist relationship was not going to end well. And we all know it won't. Don't be so naive.

'Wings Of Desire'

I strongly recommend doing one thing before you watch Wings of Desire.

Read a summary of the film. Or read this blog post because I'm about to blow the doors wide off.

It took me three-quarters of the film to realize that the two main guys were angels "existing" on Earth to overhear people's thoughts and that Peter Falk used to be an angel before choosing feelings and life over immortality. I'm at a spot now that I really just want to re-watch it.

It is an interesting plot and I think its pulled off pretty well. Slow at times, there are really interesting and investible characters, characters in need of a little love.

The film is a bit of a who's who showcase. The screenplay was done by noted Austrian writer Peter Handke. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds plays a set in a club scene. And the cinematographer was Henri Alekan, the Frenchman that worked with Jean Cocteau on the 1946 film Beauty and the Beast and who, ironically, fell out of favor in French cinema during the New Wave movement of the 1950s and did a bunch of conventional American films and only three during the 1970s.

The cinematography in Wings of Desire is exceptional, which is the only reason to bring it up.

'Ossessione'

Finally, one of the few times the Europeans have taken an American piece and turned it into something of their own (done three years before the American adaptation).

Ossessione, of course, is an adaptation of James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, the well-known story of the tramp that has an affair with a restaurateur's wife and the pair connive to kill the husband to not only run away with each other but also collect on his life insurance.

The film was almost not seen by anyone outside of anyone that saw it upon its release in 1943. Director Luchino Visconti had sneaked the film beyond the Fascist censors and upon its released it outraged everyone. The Fascists burned the film.

Visconti, thankfully, kept a duplicate negative. Even still, the film was never distributed outside of Italy until 1976

'Vulgar Display Of Power'

Pantera had a lot going for it. It wouldn't be until 1994 or so when Far Beyond Driven hit that the band would really overtake the high school crowd and be found in every CD collection, car and truck of teenagers everywhere no matter their actual taste in music.

By high school, I had friends that were major metal dudes listening to everything going as heavy and loud as Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Danzig and Cannibal Corpse. They loved Pantera.

By Vulgar Display of Power in 1992 and Far Beyond Driven, they'd gone damn near mainstream. I remember girls I would have never dreamed having something in common with having that album, blaring it from their car speakers leaving the parking lot. Guys that wouldn't know Dave Mustaine if he punched them in the asshole were suddenly well aware of Dimebag or Diamond Darrell Abbott.

Pantera were very marketable. Their music really wasn't. I should say it was very marketable, but it always needed a "hit" and metal people are wont to necessarily seek radio singles and are even less likely to create them quite like Lennon and McCartney. That's why Pantera eventually become an afterthought.

Still, experts call what Pantera does "groove metal" although I don't think it sounds too entirely different from other sorts of metal or even hard rock. Abbott's blistering solos turned him into a mainstay in every guitar magazine and many were calling Phil Anselmo one of the bet metal singers ever. It had groove so it sold. For a while.

There were other factors. Not unlike an American Idol contestant from Texas, they had an audience willing to accept and love them. Entrap the hearts and minds of teenagers in rural Texas and you can sell some records.

Also, they did an image change. In the 1980s, Pantera were not unlike many glam bands. At some point, they dumped the teased air, leopard-print vests and heroin chic for bulbous faces, dirty jeans, beards, long stringy hair and trucker's caps.

They projected everyman to everyman and it worked. It doesn't help that the songs were good and that they evoked a certain amount of connection with the audience. A lot of things went write for Pantera. Except for ... well, you know.

'Back At The Chicken Shack'

First album featuring an artist that was an organist. The organ has never been quite as cool.

Oddly, for a guy with such renown, Jimmy Smith's birth date is in question. He was either born in 1925 or 1928. Not 1926 or 1927. Those years are right out. Maybe the "5" and "8" were smudged on the birth certificate, although you'd think a "6" could be just as easily smeared on a piece of paper. Or maybe that some family member -- like his father who got him into performing -- would be able to remember.

Smith was formally trained having gone to music colleges after serving in the navy. He also went on to record about 70 albums as the bandleader and also recording with artists from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson.

There's nothing extraordinary about Back at the Chicken Shack other than being good. I don't think it'll blow your mind, but there's way less accessible jazz out there and way worse. Nothing pretentious here.

'King Solomon's Mines'

Some pieces of art need to placed in context. It makes a bit more poetic.

Consider that not only was travel abroad only for the insanely rich, slaves or those in the military or that a vast, vast amount of the planet had actually been fully explored, the idea of going abroad in a book, for a nickel or penny or however much books cost at the time, was probably the closest most people came from seeing the African plains, the jungles of Asia, the tombs of Egypt or the mystery of South America.

In 1885, when H. Rider Haggard started an entirely new genre of literature, the Lost World, with King Solomon's Mines, surprisingly, most of the world had been at least "found." Meaning, colonized. The Germans, Dutch, British and French had massive holdings in Africa, South America, North America and Asia. In fact, explorers had gotten bored and was looking for ways to getting to the poles and up the highest peaks.

Still, the interiors of these lands were still a mystery (think Joe Conrad and The Heart of Darkness). There's still parts of the Amazon river basin still unexplored. There's still allegedly parts of the Appalachian Mountains in the United State still unseen by outsider's eyes. The Valley of the Kings would be soon discovered in Egypt and the secrets of the Assyrian empire were being dug up. The rich culture and history of the colonized people around the world suddenly had a lot of depth and people wanted to know more. The sun might have rose and set on the British empire, but time started elsewhere.

Here you had Haggard bringing it all, based on real accounts, real people and somewhat real adventures (perplexing natives by taking out false teeth was a real trick played on the poor souls of Africa), all of which sparked an entire genre from H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Burroughs and all those crazy adventures novels that would follow. Let's face it, there's no Indiana Jones without Allan Quatermain.

'Good Morning, Midnight'

Good Morning, Midnight was published in 1939 about a woman who returns to Paris between the two great wars and finds nothing but insecurity and instability.

No money or nobody to depend on or to county upon the next morning or night. Hunger and desperation a perpetual companion as she plans her next step. At least many of the feelings and circumstances surrounding our protagonist were probably those of Rhys herself, who had a series of failed relationships, marriages, a near-fatal abortion and a son who died at a young age. Nothing was permanent in Rhys' life.

Right after it was published, author Jean Rhys fell completely out of the limelight making many think she had died. Rhys turned back up in 1949 when someone decided to turn Good Morning, Midnight into a play and they were forced to hunt Rhys down and get her permission. Alas, she was living very quietly in the English countryside.

She did not publish another piece until 1960, 21 years later.

'A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian'

An interestingly easy read that is much as laugh-out-loud humorous as it is a tale about all the bullshit that people put up with when they have families.

Who knew that something that could provide so much love, so much support could be such giant pains in the ass?

A widowed father, a Ukrainian immigrant and former engineer, shocks his two grown daughters -- who are estranged due to the division of their mother's inheritance -- when he announces he is going to marry a much younger gold digger, Valentina.

As the daughter unite to oust Valentina, whose intentions are clear that she is looking for citizenship and any cash the father might have, the secrets of the family are unveiled as are Valentina's and as much as we would like to hate someone (the father, the daughter, Valentina, et al.) we just kind of feel sorry for all of them. Almost all at the same time.

What is most perplexing is how foreign everyone feels. It's set in England. However, it might as well be happening in some Ukrainian hamlet because it perpetually feels that no one fits into their adoptive country (as it's revealed, most are there illegally) even the grown daughters, who have married Englishmen, work and thrive in the country. This is a wholly Ukrainian novel, an immigrant's story.

'Paranoid'

I don't know if I've given Black Sabbath enough thought to even form an opinion.

But that's a good album. The riffs are meaty, the guitar leads are blistering (for the time), it's sludgy, British metal, and yet it doesn't forsake the melody. There are good songs here.

Foremost, I think there's "Iron Man." I've probably listened to the Cardigans' cover of "Iron Man" more than I've listened to the original.

However, I dare you know to put this on the stereo and crank it. It's a great, great song. Geezer Butler's bassline is incredible. The guitars just absolutely kill it. The lyrics make as little sense as possible.

I think you can say what you will about Ozzy Osbourne. Maybe he's a cartoon character now, but I would say that he's always been a cartoon character. His look and his antics are not entirely too different than being on a reality show and being a sort of a punchline. I don't think he cares. I sincerely believe he knows that he's had one heck of a life, one blessed compared to toiling in some Manchester coal mine or factory.

'I've Got A Tiger By The Tail'

A simply fantastic lil' country album. A whole lot of twin-fiddle, steel-guitar, three-chord early country mixed with a little early rock and roll.

There's not a bad song on the record. Mostly their about sleeping with women and generally really not wanting to settle down, which sounds agreeable.

Ironically (or not), Owens himself married five times and divorced all five times. One marriage, to a fiddle player in his band, lasted a couple of days before she threw in the towel. Either Owens knew exactly what he was singing about or he knew absolutely nothing about what he was singing about. You could probably write a book about it.

Owens is actually a Texan. Before he made Bakersfield, Calif. as a kind of hub of musicians, he was born in Sherman (there is a mall currently on the property where his house once stood) and later attended school in Garland, which in the 1930s was probably a series of farm and pasture land.

Owens died of a heart attack, in his sleep, in 2006. By all accounts, he had a chicken fried steak, was about to not perform until he learned a group of fans from Oregon came to see him and decided to play anyway. He played the gig, went home and died in his sleep.

Not the most glamorous of deaths, he didn't die of alcohol poisoning in the back of his car, but he's a hell of a way to go.

'Dirty' & 'Goo'

Sonic Youth's first two albums after signing a five-album, $300,000 deal with Geffen after the moderate success of Daydream Nation.

I personally think they're terrific. A step up from Daydream without losing any of the edge. The band was not required to run songs by the record company but they did nonetheless. Sonic Youth seems to do what they want, when they want.

Both albums sandwiched Nirvana's Nevermind, regarded as the quintessential rock record of the last 25 years. Despite being pushed as such, Sonic Youth was never able to capture the mainstream success of their counterparts in the post-punk genre. It probably makes sense.

Although Nirvana are not some bubblegum pop band, there was a lot more structure and melody. Sonic Youth was grittier with less craft and a lot more caterwauling from Kim Gordon.

Still, they're a band I respective the crap out of and I still have like two albums to listen to for this list.

The real question is just how rich are Sonic Youth? They've never sold more than 500,000 of any one album, these two being their most popular. They've gotten no radio airplay. They also don't tour excessively. Not like 200 dates in a year. They still have to eat even if their old. Thurston Moore did say that they could have made a lot more money had their broken up in the early 1990s and done a reunion tour like The Pixies or Dinosaur Jr. At least he's honest.

'Garbage'

When this album was released in 1995 -- I was 15 -- I thought this was music aimed at marginally disenfranchised females and make-out music for the slightly fringey kids.

Again, I was 15. In theory, this album should have been aimed at me. It wasn't.

I kind of feel the same about it. Girls liked it because the lyrics were vague and hinted at being unsatisfied about stuff. Like guys, I guess.

Guys kind of liked it because the band had a female singer, who sang lyrics that were a little titillating and suggestive. But not suggestive in the least. They were probably about cheeseburgers.

The band seemed rock starry and foreign. The singer was Scottish. In fact, they're from Wisconsin. Rock capital.

'Nothing's Shocking'

It's hard to believe that his album is 23 years old and that it's Jane's Addiction first studio album.

It's good. I've never disliked Jane's Addiction, but I've also never really liked them. Mostly because I don't think they've truly been as good as they are on Nothing's Shocking and they also have not been around for very long, at least with the original line-up. Also, the members -- at least Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro -- have gotten too far into themselves as moderately popular rock stars.

Leather pants, make-up, crazy hair, trying to juggle the life of a hippie, artist and a libertine all at the same time. Seems all a bit too disingenuous.

I would daresay you could play Nothing's Shocking on modern airwaves while not indicating who the artist or record is and letting all the young hipsters figure out that it's older than them.

Apparently, a lot of the tension within the band stems from this album. Before it was recorded, lead singer Farrell demanded 62 percent of royalties for lyrics and music. Clearly, the other three members weren't behind this and they almost broke up.

Farrell and bassist Eric Avery had a further riff when it was thought the latter attempted to hit on the former's girlfriend. Also, Avery went sober. There was apparent tensions between all the members except Stephen Perkins, and who could hate a drummer?

This album also belongs in the censored album covers package. Walmart tends to frown about nude women.

'Devil Without A Cause'

Geesh. There's not a bigger phoney baloney quite like Kid Rock. Some greasy-haired white kid sucked into liking hip-hop, is halfways decent at rapping to the point that he's not completely laughed out of the room, he decides he wants to get big, embraces rock music and then spends the next decade telling everyone about how he's still the same ol' gracious kid that grew up Detroit and came from the most modest of backgrounds.

Kid Rock's like one of those formerly small towns that is suddenly too big for its britches and still advertises how small its schools are.

This album is terrible and it brings back a lot of bad musical memories. I've written before that 1998-2000 was just a bad time for music or for music that was A) popular and B) played on MTV at the time. I was in college and there was literally nothing better to do than watched Total Request Live and Kid Rock had a perpetual video in the top 10 and they were all from this album.

The songs are terrible. They focus on banging girls, partying and drinking. Still, Kid Rock knows when to bring it all back down with "Only God Knows Why," a pretentious, probably sacrilegious prayer from the woeful Kid Rock bemoaning the fact that all this money, drugs, alcohol, women and success could never heal the hurt and loneliness. What a dick. He spends the other 11 songs telling us how great money, drugs, alcohol, women and success are and how personal fulfillment is pretty overrated.

I wish harm on no one. If Kid Rock disappeared -- he's currently assaulting country and western charts -- I wouldn't be too upset.

'Sweet Smell Of Success'

This film was a turning point in Tony Curtis' career.

In the beginning, studio executives advised against taking the role because it could damage his relatively young career (he was 32 at the time). However, he wanted the role in the rather cerebral drama because he wanted to prove he could act.

So he did Sweet Smell of Success and The Defiant Ones -- the groundbreaking 1958 film that put race relations on its head -- in consecutive years and thus a legend was born. Although, he'd do Some Like It Hot a year later. Sometimes you do have to do the money makers (see: cross dressing) so you can do the roles you really want.

Initial moviegoer reaction was as expected. Fans didn't like their pretty boy Curtis in this serious role as a asshole character. Burt Lancaster also took a risk in the film in his role. He was already an established actor and working on a relatively boring film with a first-time director was probably not the keenest of gigs.

Instead, the film became the critic's darling, a cult classic and one of the greatest films of all time.

By the way, A+ on the poster above. Beautiful.

'Pandora's Box'

As much as The Smiling of Madame Beudet was a groundbreaking film in terms of being made by a female director and having a feminist theme, Pandora's Box pushed its fair share of envelopes.

Let this film be a lesson to all of us. If you go around messing around with a bunch of guys, you are bound to be gutted by Jack the Ripper.

That's the lesson here: Lulu was a free-living socialite piece of ass who played every rich guy for the fool until it all caught up with her and she winds up as a prostitute. The film has everything from lesbian overtones, double crossing and Jack the Ripper gutting the main character.

Lulu was portrayed by American actress Louise Brooks, who partied, drank and philandered more than any male counterpart in film at the time. She had any number of lovers, even quite a few lesbian affairs. She was a heavy drinker since 14. Even during the filming of Pandora's Box, she frustrated director Georg Pabst by going out partying every night with her boyfriend of the time.

Brooks acted sparingly after Pandora's Box as her career failed to flourish with films with sound. Her final film was in 1938. She would die in 1985.

'The Smiling Of Madame Beudet'

This film is notable because it is considered the first feminist film. Certainly, it had to be a film directed by one of the first female directors, Germaine Dulac.

Dulac was a military brat eventually winding up in Paris living with her grandmother before the turn of the 20th century. She grew up as an artist, but eventually turned to journalism and criticism writing for the feminist publication La Française, where she later became a theater critic.

Dulac was visiting Italy before World War I when a friend of her was scheduled to be in a moving picture. Here, she learned the ins and outs of the artform and industry. She returned to France as a filmmaker and hit the ground running.

The Smiling of Madame Beudet was released in 1922 or 1923. It is just 54 minutes long. It is about a husband, who threatens to shot himself in the head to his wife. Pissed, the wife puts bullets in the chambers ready for the next time he thinks he is faking the end of his life. Unfortunately, things go all screwy.

With the unveiling of talkies, Dulac's took a bad turn and she spent the rest of her life doing movie newsreels. Dulac died in Paris in 1942. Such an important figure and not one "feminist" espousing The Feminine Mystique in a college classroom today knows her name.

'Wildest!'

In the 1950s, with big-band music waning in popularity, Louis Prima found himself at a crossroads.

The Italian immigrant could continue to schlep around the East Coast doing gigs for gas money, just enough to get by while trying to provide for a family.

Or he could take the deal offered to him: Regular side stage shows at The Sahara in Las Vegas, one of the city's oldest casinos and clubs back in the day when that was the rottenest city in the United States if you considered the clientele and the gangsters running the casinos, books and all that jazz.

Prima took the gig and it wasn't long that it was an extremely popular show featuring Prima's signature vocals. In 1956, he and his band recorded Wildest! at The Sahara in order to capture the energy that Prima and his players brought every night in their live performances. They wanted to capture 3 a.m. at The Sahara in 1955.

This is a really good album, one that would not only somehow influence David Lee Roth, but also directly lead to the the ill-advised resurgence of swing music in the late-1990s.

However, I think Prima's best performance is that of King Louie in The Jungle Book and his song "I Wanna Be Like You."

'The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast'

Many times, if you watch enough films, listen to enough records or read enough books which are supposed to be some of the best ever written, recorded or filmed in the history of mankind, you find a few duds.

The Hour of the Bewilderbeast fits that mold. You listen to it expected something grand and compelling. A melody that lays its hooks in you or a groove that can't make you stop listening. Unfortunately for Badly Drawn Boy, I was just underwhelmed and bored.

That's not to say that its a bad album because there is enough to like and maybe if you like the guy behind Badley Drawn Boy, or if you like really boring pop music, you'd probably get a lot of enjoyment out of this album.

If you are looking for the exceptional, or perhaps one of the 1,001 records I should listen to before I die. That's not what you get here.

'The Good, The Bad & The Queen'

An interesting concept: A supergroup with no official name releases an album.

If only it were good. And I think Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon are two cool dudes and just about anything from Blur and The Clash is alright with me.

But this sucks. I could barely listen to it without getting bored. Maybe one day I'll give it another shot and see what happens. As for now, it's just the bad and the queen.

'High Sierra'

If the woman doesn't get you killed, the dog will.

Humphrey Bogart's Mad Dog Earle is killed during a shoot out with police on a mountain after he attempts to retrieve his dog, Pard (which was Bogart's actual dog, Zero, which is an awesome name for a pet), and is shot in the back. Just like Jesse James.

Women played a huge part in this little escapade, too. There was Velma, the club-footed hillbilly that Earle paid to get her foot fixed only to find out she was spoken for. Earle was probably wondering why the boyfriend didn't get her foot fixed, but he realized we are all pawns in this chess game of life. He was a pawn, used to set up Velma's next move. Hussy.

So he jumps to Marie, played by the extremely average Ida Lupino, who's been all over him the entire film but to no avail. He winds up getting treed up a mountain and shot in the back trying to get his sticking dog. It was all Marie's fault.

'Ordet'

A very fascinating film based on the play by Kaj Munk, a Danish pastor.

Munk's interesting in his own right. He was a foster kid after his parents died and he quickly found himself in the Lord's work. He had stated a certain admiration for Adolph Hitler for unifying Germany and even advocated a Nordic dictator that would unify Scandanavia. However, he opposed the Nazi occupation of Denmark, despised the Axis actions against the Jews and wrote plays and newspaper articles decrying these actions and criticizing fascism.

For one of those plays, Munk was arrested by the Gestapo and murdered and left in a ditch. He is considered martyr (which I thought was a religious thing, not ideological) and his death is considered a starting point for the Danish Resistance.

Ordet is not political. It revolves around the patriarch of a farming family and his three songs: One of which is a married father and athiest, the second studied too much Kierkegaard and thinks he's Jesus Christ, and the third wants to marry the town tailor, but is disallowed between differing thoughts on being a Protestant, which is about the most ridiculous thing in the world, but this Denmark. I mean, the film has a guy that thinks he's Jesus and the kids being disallowed to marry due to ecumenical differences is still the nuttiest thing ever.

Things round out when the crazy brother resurrects the eldest brother's wife after she perishes after child birth and also ends up bridging the gap with the marriage thing. And it ends happily ever after unless you consider having to live the rest of your life with the lady that was dead for an hour. Really creepy.

People really need more shame regarding death.

'The Big Red One'

Again, all kudos to the late, great Lee Marvin. The guy was a beast of an actor and he was a total true badass (having served in World War II and getting shot in the ass ... as previously reported on this blog ... and the rest of the Internet).

The guy was extremely good and he probably has a total of 40 lines in every film. "The Big Red One" does not refer to say a person, but instead an actual numeral, one (1) and the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division (which wore a big red 1 on its sleeve).

It's a surprising film given that it was released in 1980 (actually, one day after my actual date of birth) and probably had some of the most realistic battle scenes in cinema. Granted, it was no Saving Private Ryan, but the scenes are very chaotic and violent.

It also stars Mark Hamill during a time when a majority of human beings knew him as Luke Skywalker.

While watching it, I thought about when we were kids and we'd discuss which branch of the armed services we'd join if we were forced or decided to do it.

I can't really swim. Well, I swim better now than I ever used to so it seemed that the navy and marines seemed out of the question. In fact, I asked a recruiter in high school whether you needed to know how to swim to join the army. He said you didn't, but I only assumed he was lying because he was speaking to a library full of promising recruits and if all it took was a little white lie to get me join the ranks, then so be it.

All things equal, I think the navy seems pretty cool. I could probably get a lot of satisfaction out of touring the world and living on a submarine or battleship. However, I think it comes down to the army. They stick to solid ground a lot, the air force seems too hoi polloi and the marines are so stuck up. Army it is.

'Ashes And Diamonds' & 'Man Of Iron'

Going through these lists -- particularly the films and books -- you realize how much art from Poland regarding World War II, the Holocaust and post-war politics there's been.

I could review another four or five things I've read or watched the last two weeks that would fit into this theme.

Andrzej Wajda directed both these films. He's regarded as one of the best directors of all time, certainly one of the top three or five in Europe and certainly the best in Poland.

He is known for keeping his finger on the pulse of Polish politics and goings on addressing the Solidarity Movement (Man of Iron) to post-war assassinations, labor unions and coming to grips with whatever split apart their country.

It's a horrid little place despised and invaded by both the Russians and Germans within the span of a year. They fought and killed their neighbors and friends in a sort of self-preservation. Large chunks of their population disappeared in ovens and mass graves, in the swamps and forests, in a matter of three or four years. As much of a set of turdburgers as the Poles were in how the Holocaust went down, they also resemble a bunch of eight-year-old children, who don't know how to take care of themselves.

Fact is, nobody in that country can really trust each other. Wajda's father was killed when the filmmaker was 14 during the Katyn massacre (22,000 Polish prisoners of war were murdered by Russian decree).

A lot of Wajda's films focus on post-war, labor strife as the country attempts to build itself. Even in these cases, there is class warfare as the country tries to transition from an agrarian society into an industry juggernaut considering the size of the country and its location on the outskirts of Europe and Russia. All the while, per the characters in his films, they can't seem to escape the skeletons in the closet. Just can't stop tripping over themselves.

'Open Your Eyes'

I've seen this film and the American remake, the very underrated Vanilla Sky, over and over in order to see all the plot points in the flashback in addition to all the little things that I think make the film(s) pretty special.

There are the facial expressions, the words and tone of voice that the characters use. How things are said is very important due to all of the tense relationships and the fact that half the film is this guy's dream.

I think there are two characters who remain very ambiguous: Sofia and Pelayo. I don't think it's clear that Sofia and Pelayo are ever really "dating" or just going to a party together. Now, is it wrong to steal your buddy's date to a party? Sure. But, hell, you're the head honcho. And it's never clear whether or not Peyalo is really Cesar's real friend or if he's just maintaining good relations to maintain funding for his writing. Peyalo is a very untrustworthy "friend."

I think the most telling scene in the entire film is when Sofia agrees to meet Cesar, but winds up bringing along Peyalo. The trouble is that all the characters kind of talk out of both sides of their mouth. They say they are "OK" when they're really not. Sofia says she's OK with being around David and his disfigurement, but as earnest as Sofia is, I don't know if that's true.

Are Sofia and Peyalo uncomfortable because of the way Cesar looks or because he's such a self-hating, macho asshole?

The truth is that Sofia and Peyalo were going to leave Cesar behind in reality, the non-dream state, and that sucks no matter how you slice it. It was Cesar's dream to have these people love him. That to me is the acme of loneliness.

'The Maltese Falcon'

The fact that this was adapted 11 years after publication with Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart into one of cinema's finest films sort of does the book an injustice.

It's really good and I think better than some of Dashiell Hammett's works. It also marks the introduction of Sam Spade, one of the foremost literary detectives of all time and the model for Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe.

Spade is interesting only because his train of thought, his motivations and his drive is completely and utterly unknown to everyone. Even the dumb characters in the book.

Spade works to "solve" a number of issues. He dislikes the cops as much as he dislikes the criminals that are working the other side. His partner is murdered and his motivation for finding the murderer lies with the adage that a guy has to stand up for his partner, even after they are murdered. He also says a partner getting murdered is bad for business. Meanwhile, Spade is screwing his partner's wife and, thusly, becomes suspect No. 1 for the police.

All the while, we get brief glimpses into what drives Spade. We think he is a character with morals. He's also a guy that suggests he'd let his girlfriend get away with murder if there were a greater financial reward.

Certainly, Spade is not a black-and-white character, not unlike the anti-heroes in popular cable TV series like Jimmy McNulty in The Wire, Tony Soprano in The Sopranos or even the serial-killer serial killer, Dexter. These are complex figures, who are probably inherently bad people, yet we can't help but think they are good and a lot of things they do is good.

Spade calculates the risk versus the reward in every scenario and skates the thin patch of slippery ice between being lawful and good and immoral.

Meanwhile, the Maltese Falcon is still out there somewhere.

'Das Boot'

A three-and-a-half hour German film about a submarine.

I dove right in and was thoroughly impressed maybe far more than I expected to be.

Das Boot is noted for its reality. The actual captain of U-96 of which the film is based and other consultants were brought in by director Wolfgang Peterson to make sure the film showed "what war is all about."

It is by no means an action-packed three-and-a-half hours. It's filled with as much tedium and boredom as the actual sailors felt while out to sea for six months. We, the audience, are tested along with the crew. We realize that serving on a U-boat was not extravagant and required a lot more chasing -- goose chases, if you will -- only to find out your prey have already gone somewhere else. Actually, neither of us are being tested. They're actors and we're on our couches eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

A big theme of the film is politics, or the relative lack thereof when you're in the middle of the ocean dodging depth charges. At the beginning of the film, the captain and crew are at a club in La Rochelle the night before their departure.

There a drunken crew member openly mocks not just Winston Churchill and Adolph Hitler. While out to sea, we learn that just one of the crew was largely pro-Nazi. Most were apathetic or apolitical whilst the captain was openly anti-Nazi.

As this might seem ridiculous considering our ideas about Nazi Germany and everyone being on board, according to one U-boat commander, party loyalty or zeal were not considered for U-boat assignment until later in the war when the battle at sea was being lost and morale waned. Another historian has noted that U-boat crews were probably the least pro-Nazi of all the German armed forces.

'Down By Law'

I expected absolutely nothing out of this film and was pleasantly surprised by what transpired. All this due to Stranger Than Paradise.

Expecting 90 minutes of pompous pointless dialogue and Tom Waits being Tom Waits, I was given a story with compelling characters and a plot that moved and remained animated.

I still think Waits was caught being Tom Waits, which can happen. It's not like he knows how to "act" in the strictest of senses. He was probably just playing a disc jockey turned set-up con as he would play a milk man, farmer or Wall Street day trader. John Lurie, another musician, although way less popular, fit as the more natural fight in front of the camera.

My favorite Jim Jarmusch appearance is in the HBO show, Bored to Death, starring Jason Schwartzman as a struggling writer, who takes to being a private detective not unlike Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler's mysteries.

In one episode, Schwartzman's agent, played by Ted Danson, gets Schwartzman an opportunity to write a screenplay for a Jarmusch film. When he belatedly goes to turn in his screenplay, Jarmusch is found inside a largely empty loft riding a bicycle in circles.

If he doesn't do this, he should.

'The Adventure' & 'Red Desert'

Upon its first screening at the Cannes Film Festival, The Adventure was booed by the audience and director Michelangelo Antonioni and star Monica Vitti fled the theater. It was screened again and won the Jury Prize. People are fickle.

It did pretty well in the box office considering it has zero story and what action that is happening goes at a snail's pace. During one lengthy scene in which Claudia is running down a corridor in search of something, Cannes filmgoers repeatedly yelled "Cut!" Rough. It was also heavily edited for its supposed "immoral" love scenes. The swinging '60s hadn't really hit Italy yet.

The Adventure would launch Vitti's career as she become one of the foremost Italian actresses including Antonioni's Red Desert. Accordingly, neither film makes a heck of a whole lot of sense. The visuals and these wayward characters tend to serve as some sort of commentary. Like Red Desert has this almost dystopian view of industrial, post-war Europe. Even Vitti's character -- just after a suicide attempt -- is so sad and depressing, as you would imagine.

Interestingly, The Adventure begins with a group of young, beautiful society people on a yacht trip when they come upon a volcanic island. One of the girls, disappears, and the next 20 minutes of the film are these people searching for the girl and then the authorities coming in to find the girl or her body.

Instead, the film follows Claudia after the disappearance. They not only really address Anna's disappearance, but they don't even provide any kind of closure. Roger Ebert wrote that her disappearance and a lack of an explanation represented these people's pointless lives and how they can "disappear" at any moment. And he's a whole lot smarter than me so I'll go with it.

'Cat People' & 'The Seventh Victim'

Cat People was the unofficial prequel to The Seventh Victim made just two years before. A prequel only in that it was produced by the same guy and both co-starred Tom Conway as Dr. Louis Judd.

The odd thing is that it is intimated that Dr. Judd is killed by the cat woman in Cat People. Then he shows back up in The Seventh Victim, up to his ambiguously old tricks where you can't quite figure out of if he's a good guy or not. I tend to think not.

I find these films very interesting because them much like The Masque of Red Death deal with some very dark themes including Satanism. Maybe these evils seemed all too real in what we would consider a pretty straight-laced society. In the 1940s, a real evil existed in the Soviet Union and Germany. They had to seem other worldly and extreme much like the characters and demons existing in these films.

Simone Simon starred as the cat lady in Cat People. She was established in France and at the age of 24 she was signed to a contract by an American production company. Each attempt failed in the United States. Cat People is her biggest hit in the States. She made one film past 1956. She's 94 and hasn't done a film since 1973. Fallen totally off the radar.

It is notable that Simon had an affair with George Gershwin and Dusko Popov. Gershwin we know. Popov we don't. The relationship with Popov got the attention of the FBI as he was a double agent for the Germans and the British, apparently he was more of a teammate for the British than he was for the Germans.

Anyway, Popov had another acquaintance: Ian Fleming, who would allegedly use Popov, a ladies man, was the inspiration for James Bond.

Fun facts.

'The Tree Of Wooden Clogs'

This film played and I was in the room as it started and ended. I'm willing to leave it at that.

It's a three-hour film in Italian (many of the random conversations are not subtitled) using real farmers in the countryside as they kill pigs and do stuff.

I don't know what it's about. I couldn't literally understand 80 percent of it due to the subtitles and it may be good only because it's extremely real: Real people being filmed doing relatively real things.

All that's fine. But it was boring. And it was three hours of boring.

'A Night At The Opera'

At the time of its release, A Night at the Opera was the most expensive album ever made. Brian May later said that if the album hadn't succeeded, the bad would have broken up.

it was their fourth studio album and wound up No. 1 in the United Kingdom and No. 4 in the United States. So all the money spent wound up paying off.

Certainly, it's a well-produced album and listening to all the bells and whistles, it's no doubt that a lot of time and money went into the recording.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" alone seems like a cash cow of a song. Multi-layered vocals, complicated sections that flow from ballad to operatic interlude to hard rock head banging.

The film Wayne's World maybe didn't give us much as a society. What it did do is turn millions of 13-year-old boys in 1992 on to the genius of Queen and "Bohemian Rhapsody" all stemming from the scene coming from the club when Garth and Wayne are driving and miming theatrics around the song, meanwhile the backseat passenger just wants to be "let go" because he has to hurl. A real cultural touchstone.

The B-side to "Bohemian Rhapsody" is Roger Taylor's "I'm in Love with My Car," a tune that Brian May thought was a joke and that Taylor locked himself into a cupboard until Freddie Mercury agreed to put the song as the B-side. As "Bohemian Rhapsody" climbed the charts, "I'm in Love with My Car" also climbed the charts and got Taylor an equal amount of royalties.

This is only noteworthy because "I'm in Love with My Car" is probably the worst song in rock history.

It's so borderline vulgar and full of innuendo that you first assume its an analogy for a girl or lover or whatever. But when you really look at the lyrics it's really about Taylor's car, which is infinitely weirder.

'The Last Of The True Believers'

Nanci Griffith is a survivor.

Her high school boyfriend died in a motorcycle crash after taking her to prom. She was engaged to singer-songwriter Tom Kimmel and that was broken off. She survived breast and thyroid cancer. She battled a five-year case of writer's block until releasing her 2009 record, The Loving Kind.

The Last of the True Believers is her fourth studio album released in 1986 and is her first effort that steers from the folk efforts she previously had released and is much more country and western.

I've been very excited to listen to this album for no real reason. I do like the album title. It's hopeful. Also, I've had some luck on this 1,001 list with country female singer-songwriters and I was not disappointed here.

This is a very sweet, folksy album. Songs about innocent love and a slice of Americana. No complaints here.

'Whiskey Galore!'

This is a film about an island in the Outer Hebrides that has run out of whiskey considering the rationing during World War II and embragoes on shipping and whatnot.

Desperate, the island finds hope after a ship off the coasts wrecks and the contents -- whiskey -- are looting by the island's inhabitants and the adventure in keeping the contents from military and police officials.

It is based on real life: The SS Politician shipwrecked off an island in the Outer Hebrides and the inhabitants abscond with the spirited contents.

Watching these films and reading these books, you get to learn about places from all over the world. I try to research the settings as much as possible because I would think there are some meaning in how the author or director set his characters in a specific place and time.

The Outer Hebrides are a group of islands located northwest of Scotland. There are 15 inhabited islands in the Outer Hebrides. The islands were actually inhabited before the Romans came through, mostly by Norse invaders and the island was handed over to Scotland in the 13th century. Some structures on the islands, including the Callanish Stones, date back to 2900 BC.

Most of the 26,000 inhabitants speak Scottish Gaelic. On the island if Eriskay, the wreck site of the SS Politician, there are currently 133 residents. It should be noted that 28,000 cases of malt whiskey was made away with.

'Bob The Gambler'

If this film has any real fault, it's the name. Essentially Bob the Gambler in translation.

It really doesn't tell you much about the film itself. It's like retitling A Streetcar Named Desire something like Stan the Sadist, or Citizen Kane like Rosebud the Sled. There is so much they could've done to workshop the title.

Overall, it's a good film. A bit of a film noir and part French New Wave. About a good-hearted gambler, down on his luck, who plans the heist of a casino. The plan blows up -- basically, the players tell their girlfriends and wives and that never, ever works out ... ever -- and Bob winds up going on an unexpected winning streak at the table and forgets all about the heist.

He is escorted into a police car as they load his winnings into the trunk.

The director is Jean-Pierre Melville, a Jewish Alsatian, who joined the French Resistance once the Nazis took control and the Vichy government was installed. It was during the Resistance that he took the surname of Melville in honor of his favorite American writer.

During his time in the Resistance, he participated with Operation Dragoon, the very understated Allied invasion of the south of France during World War II, more than two months after D-Day and the invasion of Normandy. The Resistance were credited for cutting off communications among the German forces on the coast and helping with the relative ease of the operation as the Nazis were caught completely unaware.

After the war, he kept his adopted surname for the rest of his career.

'The Bird With The Crystal Plumage'

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a part of the giallo film and literary movement in 20th century Italy of crime and mystery stories.

Giallo actually translates to "yellow" referring to the yellow covers of cheap paperback novels. The early inspiration was Alfred Hitchcock and corresponding genre took place in Sweden, France and Germany.

At the heart of the giallo sub-genre, was director Dario Argento, who got his start with co-writing Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time in the West with Bernardo Bertolucci. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage was his directorial debut and considering he had almost zero real experience in filmmaking. It was naturally a hit and defined Italian thrillers.

There's been worse debuts.

'Magnolia'

I watched this years ago when it was released on video, but I found it much better now than then.

I would not have figured that such a long film (three hours) with such a hodgepodge cast that makes a whole lot more sense now then it did then (most of those actors/actresses weren't nearly as popular then as they are now).

I don't know why I like it. I think Tom Cruise is really good playing himself, or the man that would be himself, T.J. Mackey. John C. Reilly steals the show and proves that it's kinda tragic that he's not doing any real drama any more. Philip Baker Hall proves himself one of the great character actors -- I mean, he was the librarian police on "Seinfeld" -- of our time.

The film is about irony, or coincidence, or chance or happenstance or all of that. How these selfish lives we're leading are a whole lot more connected than we think. We snarl and leer at people around us as if they're aliens or monsters. We abhor human contact and interrelations because we either assume they don't want to talk to us or we don't want to talk to them.

Instead, we never quite learn that it rains frogs at equal rate on one person as it does everyone else. Maybe it didn't need to rain frogs. But no one is forgetting that scene from the movie. Most will forget what the film is kind of about.

'Andrei Rublev' & 'Stalker'

OK. That's it. No more Andrey Tarkovsky. Finished all his films on this list. I feel like someone lifted a great weight off my shoulders, like the shackles have been loosed from my feet.

On some technical or artistic front, I'm Tarkovsky is the bee's knees. Granted, any filmmaker of note the past 50 years have paid their respects to the guy. And I'm not one to thumb my nose at a weird or offbeat film.

It's just that Tarkovsky doesn't make any sense, there's no characters to invest myself in and apparently "plot" doesn't translate to Russian. Oh wait. Sergei Eisenstein has more of a plot in his trips to the restroom than Tarkovsky has in all 4,000 hours of his.

Honestly, of all his films, I enjoyed Mirror and Andrei Rublev the most. The former you can tell came early in the game for Tarkovsky because it actually includes the frame of a story, even if it is three hours long, in black and white and in subtitles. Although, it did include a cow on fire (the cow was unfair, if not a bit freaked out - the horse falling off the stairs was shot).

Nonetheless: DONE!